Zotero 10: what's new and how to upgrade safely

Zotero 10 is the latest major version of Zotero, the free reference manager that stores your papers and writes your citations. The Zotero team released it on 17 August 2026, and it adds a new advanced search, multi-collection selection, undo, batch editing, a smarter Read Aloud and a Reading Mode for PDFs.

We look at what is new, what changed from Zotero 8 and 9, what your computer needs, and how to upgrade without losing your library. As of 12 November 2026, the newest release is 10.0.9, from 10 November 2026.

What is new in Zotero 10?

Zotero 10 brings six main features, according to the official announcement on the Zotero blog:

• Advanced search: now opens above the items list from a filter button in the search bar. It supports nested condition groups, so you can find, say, papers by one author that have yellow or red annotations.
• Faster search: most searches now ignore accents and typographic characters, so "cafe" finds "café". Full-text searches return results nearly instantly.
• Multi-select: you can select several collections, saved searches or libraries at once and see all their items together.
• Undo: Cmd/Ctrl-Z now undoes many actions, such as overwriting a field or dragging a collection to the wrong place. Not every action is covered yet.
• Batch editing: select several items and click "Edit Multiple Items…" to change a field on all of them. Item type, creators and tags cannot be batch edited yet.
• Reading Mode: a clean, reflowable view of a PDF with adjustable font, size and line spacing. You can still highlight, underline and add notes in it.

Read Aloud also got better. Zotero 10 skips in-text citations, headers, footers, tables, figures and equations, and it reads paragraphs straight through when they continue in the next column. By default it now highlights one sentence at a time.

Smaller changes include a citation preview in the citation dialog, an improved Zotero Connector for Safari, and much lower memory use from reader tabs.

What changed from Zotero 8 and 9?

Zotero 9 came out on 10 April 2026, less than three months after Zotero 8. It was the first major update under Zotero's faster release cycle. Its headline feature was Read Aloud, which reads PDFs, EPUBs and web snapshots aloud.

Zotero 10 builds on Zotero 9 rather than replacing it. Read Aloud and the new Reading Mode share a new document-analysis system that finds the parts of a page, such as columns, tables and footers. The Zotero team says it is still refining this system and asks users to report documents that look wrong in the Zotero Forums.

Read Aloud's best voices, called Zotero Voices, need an internet connection and a Zotero account. Free accounts get 2 hours a month of Standard voices. Offline, Zotero falls back to your system's voices, which sound much worse.

What are the Zotero 10 system requirements?

Zotero 10 runs on Windows, macOS and Linux. The official system requirements page lists:

• Windows: Windows 10 or later
• macOS: macOS 10.15 or later
• Linux: the same libraries as Firefox 140
• Word for Windows: Word 2010 to 2024 or Office 365 (not Word 2010 Starter)
• Word for Mac: Word 2016 to 2024 or Office 365
• LibreOffice: version 5.2 or later

For the browser connector you need current Chrome, Firefox 115 or later, or Safari 18 or later on macOS 13 Ventura or later. On macOS 11 and 12, Safari uses an older Connector with fewer features.

Many students in India use older college or family laptops. If yours still runs Windows 7 or 8, Zotero 10 is not listed as supported, so check before you plan a thesis around it.

How to upgrade to Zotero 10 safely

The safe way to upgrade to Zotero 10 is to back up your Zotero data directory first, then update from inside Zotero. Follow these steps:

1. 1Find your data folder. In Zotero, open Settings, go to Advanced, then Files and Folders, and click "Show Data Directory". By default it is C:\Users\<your name>\Zotero on Windows, /Users/<your name>/Zotero on macOS, and ~/Zotero on Linux.
2. 2Close Zotero completely. Copying the database while Zotero is open can give you a broken copy.
3. 3Copy the whole folder, not only one file. It holds zotero.sqlite (your items, notes and tags) and the storage folder (your PDFs). If you see a zotero.sqlite-wal file, copy it too.
4. 4Put the copy on another device, such as a pen drive or external disk.
5. 5Open Zotero and go to Help, then "Check for Updates…". Zotero downloads Zotero 10 and restarts. If you are new, download it from zotero.org instead.
6. 6Open a few papers and one Word or Google Docs file with citations to check that everything still works.

Three warnings from Zotero's own documentation that students often miss:

• Sync is not backup: the Zotero servers keep only the latest copy of your library. One bad sync can change it.
• Export is not backup: exporting to BibTeX or RIS and importing again resets dates and breaks the citation links in your Word documents.
• Files as needed: if you use "download files as needed", some PDFs may not be on your laptop, so they will not be in your copy.

Zotero also keeps automatic backups called zotero.sqlite.bak, made at most once a day. They help, but they sit on the same disk, so keep your own copy too.

Early 10.0 releases fixed real problems. For example, 10.0.5 fixed possible errors in large databases after the Zotero 10 update. If you delayed the upgrade, you now get these fixes at once.

How do students use Zotero 10 with Word and Google Docs?

Zotero 10 works with Word and Google Docs through plugins that insert citations and build your bibliography as you write. If you fix a title in Zotero, one click updates it in the document.

• Word: the Word plugin comes bundled with Zotero and installs itself when you first start Zotero. You can reinstall it from Settings, then Cite, then Word Processor Plugins.
• Google Docs: support comes from the Zotero Connector for Chrome, Firefox, Edge or Safari. The Zotero desktop app must be running. A Zotero menu appears inside Google Docs.
• Shortcut: in Google Docs, press Ctrl-Alt-C on Windows or Linux, or Ctrl-Command-C on Mac, to insert a citation.

For group papers in Google Docs, every co-author can add citations. Zotero recommends a group library, so everyone can fix the details of cited items. Before you submit, use File, then "Make a copy…", and in the copy choose Zotero, then "Unlink Citations". Keep the original linked in case reviewers ask for changes.

A reference manager only stores what you give it. If an AI tool suggested a paper, open it and check it exists before you save it. Our guide to fake citations in AI research papers shows how to check. For finding papers to put in Zotero, see our list of AI tools for literature review.

If you want to use Zotero on a real project with other students, join APJ-RAISE. It is free.